“Nature, it seems, is the popular namefor milliards and milliards and milliardsof particles playing their infinite gameof billiards and billiards and billiards.” ― Piet Hein __________________________________________________And presto-change-o we have Culture.Boys, and Bran and Jackie, I do not relish the idea of me being the bitch in the back of the room screaming bloody murder, but no one here has yet indicated an understanding of the widely accepted mechanism behind the evolution of Culture and everything else, namely, determinism.I would be less of a human being (and without balls) if I did not say so. So I do.

Dear bitch in the backroom, I have to take my time. I close off each day with one section of that BBC program. It's real interesting though my words end of this week may be equal to what I started with. (one quote:"what distinguishes us from other primates is the fact that we developed a larger brain"; no one explains the why of and how that came to be. Must be something like the grain of sand in the oyster.( a beautiful accident) Nothing determined. I want to hear it out. Be seing you.

Objection, Your Honor! I know a little sometin' about billiards, and while it has a bit of determinism about it, I wouldn't go callin' it strictly deterministic (ever tried to predict reactions to English on the cue ball?) - not like, say, your computer is deterministic.

Oh,Ya got trouble, my friend, right here,I say, trouble right here in River City.Why sure I'm a billiard player,Certainly mighty proud I sayI'm always mighty proud to say it.I consider that the hours I spendWith a cue in my hand are golden.Help you cultivate horse senseAnd a cool head and a keen eye.Never take and try to giveAn iron-clad leave to yourselfFrom a three-reail billiard shot?But just as I say,It takes judgement, brains, and maturity to scoreIn a balkline game,I say that any boob kin takeAnd shove a ball in a pocket.

Objection, Your Honor! I know a little sometin' about billiards, and while it has a bit of determinism about it, I wouldn't go callin' it strictly deterministic (ever tried to predict reactions to English on the cue ball?) - not like, say, your computer is deterministic.

Just because you can't predict what is going to happen doesn't mean it isn't deterministic. It just means that you are incapable of perceiving all the little factors that are doing the determining. And interesting you should contrast the determinicity of billiards to that of a computer. Anyone who has done any work with large computer programs will know how unpredictable something completely deterministic can be. That's why they have people debugging those programs. Even when they look like they're working nice and predictably they send out beta versions to crowd-source the bug hunting.

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